Chapter and Verse VII & VIII: Staral & Listen To Echoes

I wanted an instrumental to blend from Pearly Gates into Listen To Echoes and I came up with this. This is only a minute and half of music but it literally took me all day to come up with. Two guitars and one keyboard, recorded in two takes. The first one with a click track and it didn’t sound too great. The next we recorded without a click track and it felt more natural and had more feeling. I really wanted to have the sense of a new beginning on the horizon and that is what the music feels like to me.

If someone were to ask me to describe this song in ten words or less: Following the light…

This is definitely my favorite song one the album. Lyrically, structurally, musically and emotionally, I feel it is the best. I had this song around my head for a long time and the structure was complete, but I didn’t have lyrics, and I was getting really frustrated. At the time I first started seeing, Lia, who is now my wife, and she was being very distant. Deep down inside I knew she cared for me, but was afraid to admit it. I had this feeling about her when we first went out that she was a very special person that would have a very important effect in my life. Well, I finally told myself that I will close my eyes and whatever comes to my mind I will write it. I did and she was the first thing that came to my mind and the words started pouring out. It was written to my content in a couple of hours.

While recording the song, the vocals were the toughest. The first 5 takes I couldn’t make it through the first verse because I started crying. At certain points of the song, especially the very end, my voice cracks and that’s me tearing up. This is probably the song that made the relationship between Lior and myself a little more personal because he was able to see the emotional side of me. It really helped the rest of the recording process.

The lyrics reveal a lot of my life at the time. “This naked aggression is my addiction turned obsession and it’s a sudden burst of energy,” and “I’m killing myself just to feel alive, now I’m coming down again.” Interpret it, as you will.

This is played at every live show, even my solo acoustic shows.

If someone were to ask me to describe this song in ten words or less: Falling in love for the first time.

Published by Jude Hernandez

I'm a writer, musician, songwriter, baker, and photographer who spent the first 24 years of my life as a baseball player and now spending the rest of my life as father and family man. I love writing, taking photographs and anything baseball. I'm striving to be the best version of myself as I continue to learn the great art of music, writing, baking, and photography.
View all posts by Jude Hernandez